common cause

June 28, 2019 -
Despite the U.S. Supreme Court's refusal to address partisan gerrymandering, North Carolina courts this summer could decide if the extreme partisan manipulation of legislative districts violates the state constitution. Files that belonged to a deceased redistricting guru could shed light on the process, but the parties to the lawsuit are arguing over access to them.

November 15, 2018 -
Voters in states across the South faced difficulties including long lines, closed polling places, malfunctioning machines, and voter intimidation. There were also registration issues that forced some voters to cast provisional ballots, which aren't necessarily counted.

April 25, 2018 -
The first peer-reviewed study of ads bought on Facebook to influence the 2016 election is renewing calls for Congress to pass the Honest Ads Act, which would close disclosure loopholes for political ads on social media. The stalled bill is opposed by groups including Americans for Prosperity and an anti-regulatory think tank with a connection to Senate leader Mitch McConnell.

April 6, 2018 -
Election watchdogs have accused the British political consulting firm of violating limits on foreign involvement in elections and of facilitating illegal coordination between super PACs and campaigns in its work to elect candidates including U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina.

March 18, 2016 -
In the wake of this week's primaries, North Carolina is the only Southern state where Democrats have reached near-parity in voter turnout with Republicans — and it happened amid widespread troubles at the polls due to confusion over the state's restrictive new voting laws.

August 7, 2015 -
Fifty years after President Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act, African Americans still face voter suppression and other forms of discrimination. The NAACP and allies are marching through the South for 46 days to demand voter protections and other civil rights.

October 10, 2013 -
A student at a historically black North Carolina college who had his right to run for office challenged has won a city council seat, and students at another of the state's HBCUs marched to the polls en masse in a local election that represented a repudiation of right-wing attacks on public schools.

August 14, 2013 -
Mrs. Rosanell Eaton once fought for voting rights under Jim Crow. Now she and other civil rights advocates are fighting for voting rights under North Carolina's Republican government.

July 15, 2013 -
Civil rights and gun safety leaders are calling for the repeal of what some decry as racially biased "shoot-first" laws, which are especially popular in the South. Some are putting renewed pressure on the corporate members of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), the business advocacy group that promoted such laws in the states.